Podstawy prawne działalności inwestycyjnej banków

Abstrakt

In addition to conducting their activity in the traditional deposit and credit markets, banks play a significant role in the capital market. Investment banking, in its broadest sense, boils down to banks performing functions that are critical to the infrastructure of trading in financial instruments; from providing new products to the market, through advising and brokering the placement of securities, to safekeeping financial instruments. The most basic investment activity, however, is the allocation activity, which consists in allocating financial surpluses into assets, or in other words, executing transactions. Banks generally performs such activities in four models: (i) for their own account, (ii) in limited form through their treasury departments (iii) in full form through brokerage branch, and (iv) through subsidiaries. The article analyzes what extent of regulation characterizes each of the models presented, and the relationship between the legal basis for performing these activities and the catalogue of banking activities. For this reason, the article interprets the provisions of the Banking Law and the Act on Trading in Financial Instruments, as well as other related regulations, with a particular focus on the changes introduced by the Act on Ensuring the Development of the Financial Market.